It’s Summer! No more fires, so I can cover the top of the woodburner with a few crazy objects

From left to right

Back Row

Pink Watering Can

A few years back, after helping put together 3 weddings and numerous Christenings, it was about to be my 60th birthday – I was planning a big event for ME! The theme was to be English Country Garden, I bought tiny colourful plastic flower pots in which I was going to serve chocolate mouse (earth) with pop cakes flowers in them, I bought a garden arch through which guests would enter the village hall, I intended to cover it with crocheted flowers, The drinks were going to be poured from brightly coloured watering cans …………..

woah!

Then my son and daughter-in-law annouced the impending arrival of twins – guess when they were due ON MY BIRTHDAY!

All plans for a big party were (happily) dropped – but I still have the watering cans!

And my children gave me a wonderful surprise birthday party in September on our family holiday. So all was very well!!!!

I know you have seen the Giraffe before (from Chive), I hope you don’t mind her making another appearance. I’m very fond of her and her headgear today is a white perenial foxglove called Snowy Mountain.

I grew 6 for myself and gave some to friends – they were beautiful in the first year – last year, gorgeous I was thrilled with them. All but one has died, the one I have left is pathetic, it has this one flower spike. Oh dear!

Painting by Kaneda Hanaki

I saw this painting when I was in Japan. When I got home, I contacted the gallery to see if it was still available and it was! I love its quirkiness.

Welcome!!! It’s the Monthly Meet-Up Photo Challenge, which happens on the first Tuesday of each Month.

I had a happy time looking through my files to find archive photos featuring

YELLOW

This is Miss E with her Dad enjoying a bouncy castle a few years ago

A friend in a yellow silk dress at my daughter’s wedding, 2006

A postcard made for iHanna’s Postcard Swap 2016Collage waiting to be turned into a greetings cardPainted garden potsCandlelight at a wonderful surprise party thrown for me by my lovely kids and their partnersBig Sis at playgroup when she was 3 (she will be 8 this month)Swiss chard stalks from the gardens at Esalen, California – such happy memories from November/December 2008I was there for 6 amazing life-changing weeks on a Workstudy Course, working in the gardens and doing Creative Expression and Process ArtHave you ever tattooed a banana? No – really? See here how to do it

These pieces are great for the children to make fanciful sculptures with – sadly they cost a fortune to buy from the US once shipping and customs duty ave been added. I first bought a set at the airport in New York when I was coming back home in 2008. Then luckily a friend of mine was able to get another set for me when she visited the US more recently.

The vase:

Hazel catkins, ash twigs and golden privet.

Pop over to Rambling in the Garden to see what Cathy and other gardeners, from all over the globe, have put in their vases this Monday.

I recently found the pebbles that my grandchildren children had drawn on last Summer, lurking in the bottom of a bag. They had obviously been lying in wait, ready for an appearance in a ‘Silly Saturday’ or two.

I struggled to get the pattern to work at first – my own fault – it looked so simple I just steamed ahead. After masses of counting, re-counting and undoing (or frogging) The penny dropped = LOOK AT LUCY’s TUTORIAL!!!!

Lucy does the best photo tutorials I know – I trust her implicitly – and there was the answer. Check that every third stitch in the ‘valleys’ lines up with the third stitch in the corresponding row below – sorted! Now I can wander along and enjoy the Woodland Walk.

Stylecraft Special DK and a 4.5mm hook

I have substituted Mocha (beige) with Walnut (brown) and I’m following Lucy’s Random colour order with slight adjustments to accommodate the Walnut.

Taking a walk in the Woodland today is a sweet creature made by Little Miss M out of self-hardening clay and some sticks.

The biggest joy is that I have joined the Attic24 Moorland and More Group again. It started up during last year’s CAL and has continued since. It is a brilliantly friendly and supportive group. I revel in all the detailed yarny chit-chat and practical tips.